50 Fun Facts About Pulitzer Prize

How many Pulitzer Prizes are awarded each year?

Fifteen are for journalism and eight for books, drama and music.

Which university administers the Pulitzer Prizes?

Joseph Pulitzer's bequest also founded and endowed the university's School of Journalism.

In which year were the first Pulitzer Prizes awarded?

They were established under Pulitzer's will after his death in 1911 and are now announced each May.

Joseph Pulitzer was born in which country?

He was born in Makó, about 200 kilometres south-east of Budapest, in 1847.

Since the 2017 awards, how much money accompanies each Pulitzer certificate?

The one exception is Public Service, whose winning news organisation receives a gold medal instead.

Which Pulitzer category is a gold medal rather than cash, awarded only to a news organisation?

It is often thought of as the grand prize and listed first among the journalism awards.

How many finalists are named in each Pulitzer category?

Juries nominate the finalists; the board then picks the winner or may decline to give an award at all.

Since what year have nominated finalists been publicly announced?

The Pulitzer Board discourages mere entrants from calling themselves 'nominees'.

What majority does the Pulitzer Board need to bypass the jury's nominations and pick a different entry?

The board can also vote to give no award at all in a category.

Which newspaper's owner called the Pulitzers a 'mutual admiration society' and refused to compete until 1961?

Colonel Robert R. McCormick controlled the paper and dismissed the prize as not to be taken seriously.

How much did Pulitzer's will allocate to the prize and scholarships?

He specified four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one in education, and four travelling scholarships.

Magazines were finally allowed to enter all journalism categories in which year?

Their earlier exclusion led to the creation of the National Magazine Awards in 1966.

Which category, added in 2020, gave its first prize to an episode of This American Life?

'The Out Crowd' won; the second year's prize went to the NPR podcast No Compromise.

From 1918 to 1947, the award now called the Fiction prize went under what name?

The rename in 1948 let a short-story collection, Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, win for the first time.

How many members sit on the Pulitzer Prize Board?

It meets twice a year in the Joseph Pulitzer World Room at Columbia's Pulitzer Hall.

Who was the first woman and first person of colour to serve as Pulitzer Prize administrator?

She held the post from 2017 to 2020 before becoming publisher at Simon & Schuster.

In 1921 the Pulitzer trustees gave the fiction prize to The Age of Innocence over which novel?

Sinclair Lewis, the snubbed author, later became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Which Hemingway novel was recommended for the 1941 prize but blocked by the university president over sexual content?

No award was given that year; Hemingway finally won in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea.

Which future president won the 1957 Biography Prize for a book believed ghostwritten by his speechwriter?

Ted Sorensen later admitted in his memoir that he wrote 'a first draft of most of the chapters' of Profiles in Courage.

Which Edward Albee play was picked by the 1963 Pulitzer drama jury but denied the prize over its profanity?

Albee later won three Pulitzers for Drama, but never for his most famous play.

Which Thomas Pynchon novel did the 1974 fiction jury unanimously recommend, only for the board to give no award?

The three-member jury's choice was overturned by the advisory board and the trustees.

Which Washington Post writer returned her 1981 Pulitzer after her story of a child heroin addict was found fabricated?

'Jimmy's World' was withdrawn after the newspaper's own investigation.

Which author of The African settled a Roots plagiarism suit with Alex Haley for $650,000?

A second suit by Margaret Walker over her novel Jubilee was dismissed.

Which Tony-winning musical won the 2010 Drama prize despite not being among the jury's nominees?

The board is allowed to bypass jury nominations with a 75 percent vote.

Nikole Hannah-Jones won the 2020 Commentary prize for which New York Times series?

Conservative scholars later called for its revocation after the Times softened a claim about the American Revolution.

Which four authors have each won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice?

Colson Whitehead is the most recent, winning for The Underground Railroad in 2017 and The Nickel Boys in 2020.

Which 1928 Pulitzer winner set in Peru forced the board to loosen its insistence on 'American life'?

Thornton Wilder's novel was recommended unanimously despite having nothing to do with 'American manners and manhood'.

Which two novelists share the record of four Pulitzer fiction nominations each?

Roth won once, for American Pastoral; Oates has never won.

The fiction prize was shared by two authors for the first time in which year?

Since 1918, the prize has gone unawarded in eleven separate years.

Which word from Pulitzer's will did the board restore in 1927, replacing 'wholesome'?

The original wording demanded novels present 'the highest standard of American manners and manhood'.

Which two newspapers did Joseph Pulitzer publish?

He bought the New York World from railroad magnate Jay Gould in 1883 for $346,000.

Pulitzer's rivalry with which publisher's New York Journal gave rise to 'yellow journalism'?

Circulation reached a million copies a day as both papers leaned on sensationalism, sex and crime; the style was called yellow journalism.

Pulitzer came to America in 1864 to fight in the Civil War, recruited in which German city?

He was 17, spoke no English, and had already been rejected by the Austrian, French and British armies.

Arriving in St. Louis broke, Pulitzer sold his one possession for 75 cents. What was it?

He had travelled there by 'side-door Pullman', meaning a freight boxcar.

Pulitzer's first job in St. Louis, which he quit after two days, was caring for what animals?

He said 'the man who has not cared for sixteen mules does not know what work and troubles are'.

Pulitzer was elected to Missouri's legislature in 1869 at what age, three below the minimum?

His age was never made an issue and he took his seat in Jefferson City in January 1870.

An 1885 fundraising campaign in Pulitzer's New York World paid for the pedestal of which monument?

It raised over $100,000 in three months by promising to print every donor's name, and is often called an early form of crowdfunding.

Which pioneering investigative journalist did Pulitzer recruit to the World in 1887?

She went on to feign insanity to expose an asylum and to race around the world in 72 days for the paper.

Which hugely popular comic strip, launched by the World in 1895, shares its colour with the era's sensational press?

Richard F. Outcault's strip was one of the first to appear in the new Sunday colour supplement.

Pulitzer was indicted for libelling which president and financier over a $40 million Panama Canal payment?

The courts dismissed the indictments.

Which health problems forced Pulitzer to withdraw from daily management of his newspaper?

He kept running the paper by telegram from his mansion, Jekyll Island and Bar Harbor.

Pulitzer died in 1911 aboard his yacht in which harbour?

His last words, spoken in German, were 'Leise, ganz leise', meaning 'softly, quite softly'.

Pulitzer left how much in his will to the university that founded his journalism school?

Columbia had turned down his money in 1892; the school finally opened in 1912.

Pulitzer and Hearst's treatment of child newspaper hawkers triggered which 1899 event?

The youth-led campaign later inspired the Disney musical Newsies.

Joseph's grandson Herbert Jr. married which fashion designer, whose brand carries the family name?

Her name became a preppy resort-wear brand famous for bright printed shift dresses.

A 2012 study found what percentage of Pulitzer winners since 1991 were women?

The researchers noted newsrooms at the time were about 33% female.

Which novel won the 1960 fiction prize after the board overrode the jury's pick of Henderson the Rain King?

Allen Drury's Washington political novel was one of several cases where the advisory board overrode its jury.

The Pulitzer Prize for Music honours a composition by an American that meets what condition?

It is the only music prize among the 23 Pulitzer categories, which otherwise cover journalism, letters and drama.

The Local Reporting award was split in 1948 into Investigative and which other surviving category?

A new Local Reporting category was revived in 2007 to replace the Beat Reporting award.

Roughly how many jurors does the Pulitzer Board select each year to serve on its 22 juries?

Most juries have five members, a few have seven, and one jury handles both photography awards; board and journalism jurors are unpaid.